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Corpo Age - Chapter 214: Business as Usual
🕑 Added 2024-09-30 11:18:45 +0000 UTC“So I guess it’s decided then?” I looked over at my two trusted partners.
Claire shrugged while Thorne continued to stare down at the tablet with a frown. After all our time together, I could read what he was thinking. We’ve had people set traps against us in the past, and he was worried this was the same. Usually, when the results were too good to be true, there was a possibility of being a setup.
I pulled up the file on my optics and ran over it again as I waited for Thorne to respond.
The latest intel gave us an overview of the history of Astro Forge, its current structure, and its leadership.
They had been operating in Aegis for decades, having moved on from planetside activities for a long time now. They were previously an oil company that pivoted their business to extraterrestrial resources when it became clear they had to adapt to stay competitive. However, once they established themselves in the space resource industry, their growth stagnated.
It was believed that the ownership was used to a decadent lifestyle, handing off all business matters to their secretaries once they hit their benchmarks. They only cared to make enough to sustain their luxuries, and no longer wanted to put in any more work. It made me scratch my head at how spoiled they were.
“Couldn’t they just have given up a small percentage of ownership to get a competent CEO to run their ship like Titus does with AeroDynamic?” Thorne muttered.
“I’m guessing they’re too afraid of delegating any power. Rightfully so, too. Any competent CEO could easily see how vulnerable this Axion family is. It wouldn’t take much to usurp their power,” I answered.
“So they’re run by a bunch of assistants whose only orders are to keep up the status quo? No wonder they weren’t responsive to any of your attempts at negotiating. I’m guessing they want to make an example out of Perry to keep their workers in line.”
Corporations had a lot of expectations of how their employees behaved. Gambling was outright banned in most cases to avoid having their workers compromised from debt. I could only imagine what kind of rules they had about stealing from the company itself.
The only reason we believed we had some time before we needed to act was because Perry made no effort to conceal the fact he had accomplices. It was standard practice to investigate the source of their thefts. They wanted to find the people who were fencing the goods, facilitating the transaction, and so forth, so they could strike them down and recover some of the money.
“We should still have some time, but we should start acting just in case.”
“Start with breaking this Perry out, then?” Thorne casually suggested.
“You boys go do that then. In the meantime, I’ve got to deal with bringing our assets up,” Claire declared.
“Wait! Can you prioritize the procurement of materials first? We need at least a car to get around.”
“That’s going to take like what? A week or at least a few days for you to put together? Just go at it with a rental or whatever. You guys are good at adapting, right?”
“Right…”
With our next course of action settled, we quickly proceeded to the preliminary recon phase. With our lack of manpower, Thorne and I took to the field ourselves as we began hunting down Perry’s whereabouts.
It made me beat myself up for focusing so much on training pilots and security forces that I neglected the intel department. I had left it all to Lucy, but I should’ve known she wasn’t well-versed operating in space either. I realized it too late and had to play catchup.
Owing to our previous experience, the first spot I stopped at wasn’t at any of Astro Forge’s known facilities.
I showed up at an old nutrient pack store in the back alleys of Aegis and got in the back of the line. There were all sorts of people hanging around, carrying boxes full of nutrient packs to the checkout counter.
Both Thorne and I had been here before, so we casually passed the time by checking out the various flavors they had here. Nutrient packs were more common here than on the surface. They took up significantly less space and were just more efficient. It also wasn’t worth shipping garbage synthetic food up the space elevator.
That meant the industry was booming, and I confirmed that as I saw several dozen brands competing in the market.
I preferred it this way, as I found nutrient packs to be more palpable than synthetic garbage. Tasteless was better than tasting god awful.
Soon, it was our turn at the counter, and a large, bulky man assisted us. He didn’t bat an eye at our appearance, as it was currently hidden beneath a layer of holographic projection. To him, we were just the average workers found throughout the city.
“What do you want?” he asked, noticing our empty hands.
“Sorry, we’re actually feeling unwell,” I replied. “Is there something more easy on the stomach and suited for the sick?”
He immediately nodded and pointed to the back. I saw his eyes glow for a few seconds, likely sending a message to someone.
Following his instructions, we were moved over to the backroom where a young boy found us and gestured for us to follow. Riding down a cargo lift, I soon met up with a familiar face. The QG we were acquainted with, the old man Amos.
He was watching another boxing match on his retro flatscreen TV and only spared us a glance before he snorted.
“High and mighty corpos, back in my humble abode, I see.”
“We have a job for you. Are you interested in making some easy money?”
“That depends. Tell me the details first.”
I expected his straightforward reply and simply sent him a file. It had the images, and all our known locations of Astro Forge facilities on it. I doubt it was something he didn’t know about, but it was our due diligence.
“Just searching?”
“Yes, but we want to expedite it as fast as possible.”
“Fastest I can do in three days. My people need time to make arrangements.”
The disadvantage of Aegis mercenaries was that they were rarely full-time. They had to work other jobs as a cover.
“Can we work something out? I prefer something today or tomorrow.”
The old man simply shook his hand before directing his attention back to the television screen.
“..Just give us your best guess as to where they can hold him. You should have an idea, right?”
Instead of a verbal response, he took out a piece of paper from his chest and threw it toward me. It flew erratically in the air as it slowly fell to the ground. Thorne snatched it in one quick movement and handed it over to me.
It was an old receipt. It was his cheeky way of asking for payment first.
A few thousand or even ten thousand credits weren’t that much anymore, so I didn’t bother haggling and paid right away. I transferred the fifteen thousand to his account, which got me a file sent to my inbox immediately. During this whole thing, Amos completely acted as if I wasn’t there, so we quickly left after checking I had gotten what I needed.
It was a list of five addresses, along with the basic layout of the place. I forwarded it to Thorne as we walked.
Five places, this time. Want to split up?
No, just quickly work through the places together.
I knew he would pick the safer option, so I had already reached out to the few guards I had brought with me.
There was one team, which amounted to four of them, plus us two. There may be only six of us, but with each of us equipped with power armor, we were quite the force.
With little to no traffic in Aegis, getting around was easier than ever. We arrived at our first target location and gathered at a vantage point that had a clear view of the target building. Few buildings in Aegis were hundreds of floors. The space station’s ceiling was only so tall, so the structures were reminiscent of my old world.
The six of us surveyed the target building while keeping a low profile on the roof. One of my men was even looking for the perfect vantage point to set up his weapon. Our latest weaponry was a particle beam sniper rifle. We had variants for close quarters as well, but their power was lacking if we were to fight other forces with energy shields.
To compensate for that, I copied Ferrumus Corp in creating a sword-sized particle beam generator. Our operatives had them in smaller sizes to cut through walls and other obstacles, but these were tuned for power. While it couldn’t cut through energy shields as if they weren’t there, the level of power it emitted could drain the shield’s energy within a second or so.
It consumed an enormous amount of energy, but with it connected to our power armor’s nuclear reactor, that wasn’t the problem. It was the rapid heat buildup that made it unsuitable for prolonged use. Since we had it off most of the time, I designed it to be retractable, like a collapsible baton. When fully extended, it looked like an outline of a sword.
With our equipment all checked or deployed, we soon got into positions. We had a sniper team of two stay outside. One was ready to shoot while the other kept watch of the surroundings and worked on cybersecurity. The four of us, which included Thorne, infiltrated into the building like we had done hundreds of times before.
“Remembers, keep casualties low. Just knock them out if we have to engage,” I reminded.
“You know that isn’t possible against anyone with a power armor,” Thorne retorted. “Our EI rounds will take too long to take control of them, and we can’t afford to let them run free for even a few seconds.”
“Yeah, yeah. Neutralize the threat if all else fails.”
“Are you sure you understand, Rollo? Don’t get me wrong. You’ve done this a lot, but usually, harvesters didn’t have anything we need to worry about.”
“Thorne, I was there too at Ceres. I saw how they fought, and have fought against those in power armor multiple times. Remember, we won the first time we fought our would-be kidnappers at the airport?”
“...Winning a fight and succeeding in an infiltration is different. Just be cautious, is what I’m saying.”
His face screamed that he wanted to take the lead. He also didn’t bring it up as I had conditioned him into thinking I always liked to lead the charge. He was wrong. I only did it for the experience points. If we weren’t going to take out our opposition on this mission, the vanguard role was all his.
“You take the lead, then. I don’t mind staying in the back.”
“What? You? In the back?”
I glanced over at our two teammates, Andrew and Peng, and triggered the deafened option in implants before I continued.
“You should know why I normally take the lead. There’s no point here.”
He didn’t say anything, but just nodded and began the operation.
It was still daytime, so there was some traffic going in and out of the building. The first place we headed to was their branch office at Aegis. Their headquarters was a space station near the moon, so this was their de facto main base in the area. We chose this place first, as we agreed it was the most likely place to hold prisoners.
Once we headed into the lobby, I swiftly pulled up the feed from the optics of our guys outside. I confirmed that they could see our highlighted figures through the walls, including everyone in our vision.
One of them was looking at us through the scope. It made me reassured that fire support was always available.
Even if they had a sizeable force stationed here, oh boy, were they in for a surprise.
Comments
Szilárd Fazekas
Tftc!
